


Set In Stone

by OrionRedde, Shyrstyne



Series: Cometverse [56]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe, Minor Violence, Multi, implied background death, trapped underground
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-06
Updated: 2019-07-06
Packaged: 2020-06-23 12:34:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19701475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OrionRedde/pseuds/OrionRedde, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shyrstyne/pseuds/Shyrstyne
Summary: Comet and Isa finally get to have a date of their own.So of course everything has to go catastrophically wrong.





	Set In Stone

**Author's Note:**

> news headline: nothing ever goes right for local family

“This is beautiful.” You look around the tall enclosed space, dark stone covered in creeping vines and greenery, the barest hints of light filtering in from a hole high in the ceiling. The rock crumbles from age, but the structure itself is indomitably solid, obviously built to withstand time and disaster both.

Which it had, you suppose, after the heartless had come and the world had all but fallen. This place had gone a long time without a soul to see it.

“It is.” Isa answers your observation quietly. “This place has served as the focal point for seers in the Garden for generations beyond count.”

He walks along one of the walls, tracing the images carved into the walls with a hand, bright crystals glittering softly in the dim light. You sit next to the inset pool in the center of the room, setting your bag down and watching his reverie.

“It feels very old.” You offer. He nods.

“And I will likely be the last seer to walk these halls. It’s.. a heavy burden.” He says, and you gesture him to you. When he draws close you take his hands in yours, pulling him to sit with you.

“Do you want to go somewhere else?”

“No, no,” He shakes his head. “I wanted to share this with you. Coming here as a child, I was in awe.. It was special to me, and I thought you might like to share in it.”

You smile.

“Thank you, Isa. It really is wonderful here. Has Lea ever seen it?”

“Yes, though he wasn’t supposed to.” Isa’s face breaks out into a smile. “This place was supposed to be only for seers, but in my impetuous youth I snuck him in with me several times. We even mimicked some of the rituals I had seen the older seers doing.. I think it was then that I realised how deeply I loved him, doing silly mock rituals and laughing the whole time.”

“That sounds adorable, honestly.” You’re smiling yourself. “You haven’t brought him back?”

He shakes his head.

“I can come back here, now, but.. I feel like if I came this far with Lea, he would try to get me into Radiant Garden proper, and I don’t want that.” He admits, and you rub a thumb over his knuckles softly.

“I understand.” You do, after all, Radiant Garden was only a few hours walk away and only a minute or two by ship. “I think he’s starting to get it, though. Maybe you’ll be able to come back here with him eventually.”

“Thank you.” He says earnestly. The light outside grows dim, and then bright again as silver threads of moonlight stream in from the pinprick hole far above, lighting the calm pool water in an almost ethereal glow. Isa stands and pulls you to a small stone dias at its edge.

“I would like to do this with you, if you are willing.” He asks, turning to face you, the two of you parallel to the water. You don’t know what he’s asking to do, and you’re sure the confusion shows on your face, but you trust him and nod. 

He smiles so very gently, taking your hands in his own before lowering himself to sit cross legged at the edge, which you mimic.

“Close your eyes. Don’t be scared, I am right here with you.” He says, and you do. For a moment all you know is the quiet and dark, and the barest hint of water dripping somewhere in the distance.

Light blooms beyond your eyelids, and your grip tightens on Isa’s as your mind is flooded with a cacophony of images and feelings you can’t make heads or tails of. You let out a small gasp at the sheer amount of it, and Isa squeezes your palms.

“It’s okay. Focus on me.” He says, voice steady. You struggle a moment, but slowly the feelings and thoughts narrow on a single point- Isa.

Steady, methodical, brilliant Isa.

Soft love, the echo of tragedy and heartbreak eclipsed by healing hearts and minds, regret.

Happiness. Stability. Displacement? Fear. Return. Love. Protection. Love. Change. Self hatred. So much love.

The love goes on further then you’d thought there distance, and though it is threaded with other thoughts and feelings and incomplete images, it is consistent in its presence. 

Finally, it fades, and you blink your eyes open without waiting for Isa’s command, dizzy and vision blurred. Isa comes into focus above you, and you realise you’ve somehow ended up with your head in his lap.

“How are you feeling? I’m sorry, I should have warned you the first time can be somewhat disorientating.”

“Fine, just dizzy. What.. what was that?” You don’t get up, though the dizziness is passing quickly thankfully. Isa has wonderfully pillowy thighs.

“The future, or the possibility of it.” He answers. “Nothing is ever set in stone, of course, but that is part of the reason I did not tell you exactly what to expect. Expectations can warp the vision, even for experienced seers.”

“I saw the future?” Your a little awed. “It was just.. Feelings, mostly. Thoughts? It’s not what I expected seeing the future to be.”

“It’s not what conventional wisdom would have you think. Even Merlin is something of an exception to the rule, and don’t ask me how Myde’s ability works because I don’t know.” He says, and you chuckle.

“I don’t think Myde knows either. Is that what it’s like for you all the time then?”

“It’s.. similar. And very easy to get lost in, especially without a foci like this one. I have a special attunement with the moon as well, which makes it especially perilous to call on without preparation.”

“The foci is.. The pool?” You look down into the cool waters, the moonlight only just barely grazing the edge now, time having moved on without your awareness it seems. Isa nods.

“A powerful one. It was the reason seers gathered here, and probably the only reason most of them ever saw each other, reclusive as they tended to be. It helped with the clarity of the power, as well as mitigating some of the.. Less desirable effects. Under the right circumstances, like now, it could be used to give the power to one not naturally inclined to it.”

“I can see the future now?” You give him a stunned look, and he laughs.

“ _ Temporarily. _ ” He clarifies with a small laugh. “Seers lucky enough to find themselves partners often did this together as a way of.. Seeing in broad terms what their future together might bring. It all seemed very romantic to me, when I was young.”

“You did this with Lea, didn’t you.”

“Yes.”

He doesn’t have to say what he saw, that he’d seen tragedy and heartbreak and how it had scared him. How he might have tried so hard to keep it from coming true only to self-fulfill his own prophecy. 

You can guess well enough.

“No future is set in stone.” You repeat the words from earlier into the quiet, words bouncing perilously over the tall stone pillars. Isa huffs a laugh.

“You’re smarter than I was.”

You sit up and reach up to his cheeks, pulling his forehead to yours.

“I liked most of what I saw though. So much love. I hope those parts come true.”

“Me too.” He barely whispers it, but this close you still hear it clear as day. You both stay like that for a long moment, just absorbing each others presence and comfort.

“What did you see?” You ask. He closes his eyes in thought. 

“Love. Change. Fear.”

“Fear?”

“I have never been particularly adept at change I did not initiate myself. The two seemed linked.”

You hold his hand tightly. 

“It’ll be okay.”

“Thank you.” His smile is strained, but there is a warmth in his eyes as he looks down at you that fills you with adoration. 

A sound, distinctly out of place, rises from deeper in the tunnels, echoing ominously across the stone. The two of you look up and toward its before glancing to each other.

“There shouldn’t be anyone else here, right?” You ask, sure of the answer but needing to voice the question anyway. 

“Only seers and their closest confidants knew of this place, and I know of no others who survived..” His brows knit together as he frowns. 

You look down the dark tunnel for a long moment before meeting Isa’s gaze once more. The two of you nod in tandem, getting up and moving into the dark corridor. 

As you descend and the noises get louder, it becomes clear they’re voices. One in particular sounds hard and angry. Some clatters loudly against stone.

The tunnel opens up into a larger cavern, and though the bridge is broken it overhangs the area below enough for the two of you to crouch at it’s edge and peer below.

The man shouts, and three other people scurry around the ground. One vanishes down another side tunnel, and the other two heft heavy bags onto a rickety cart.

“Who are they?” You whisper. “They don’t look like they’re from the Garden.”

“They’re not seers.” Isa’s eyes are narrowed and hard, and you hear him snarl softly as one goon lifts a tablet from its resting place against a wall and throw it carelessly into a bag.

“Isa-” You warn as his eyes start to glow. He shakes his head hard and it dissipates.

“Looters. How dare they-!” He growls. Another, fourth goon appears from another tunnel and hands something to the leader. It looks like a scroll of some kind, and even at this distance you can tell it’s seen some damage. The leader looks it over once before tossing it over his shoulder dismissively.

The wooden ends of the scroll clatters loudly, and before you can react Isa has launched himself from the bridge edge. He lands hard behind the man, making stone shake and the sound echoes loudly both above and beneath him.

“How  _ dare _ you!” Isa all but snarls, claymore lighting up in his hands as he summons it. The leader recovers admirably, but his goons are shaken. They all ready their weapons, and you curse, standing and jumping down yourself, landing directly on one who had already started to take a swing as Isa.

Something crunches in him as you come down, but you can’t pay it any mind. Isa throws the leader across the room with a shout, and more goons appear out of the side tunnels. You roll to one side as one brandishes a longsword at you, summoning your sticks in a flash of lightning as you go.

You dash forward, throwing people aside as you force your way through, ozone and static fills the air around you. You see Isa out of the corner of your eye, all but tossing the intruders aside like so much rubbish, anger in every line of his face.

“You come here!” He shouts. “To this sacred place! And treat it as nothing! Less!  _ How dare you!” _

Two people near the wall ready bows, and you skip around three more to get to them in time. The first goes down easily, but the second manages to loose an arrow before you knock her lights out. You don’t have time to check if she hit her target, still in motion as you are, and something wraps itself around one leg and brings you to an ungraceful halt. You collide with the ground roughly, coughing and trying to get up when something solid lands on your back and forces you back down.

It’s a boot, and before you can even react to the attack that's almost certainly coming from the person holding you down, the world crumbles around you. Everything shatters in a blur of glowing yellow and blue and crumbling rock and shouting. 

You fall.

The breath is knocked from you as you land, rolling down jagged rock and followed by yet more rock behind you. It’s a long moment before you feel confident in moving, unsure if you had actually stopped. There’s almost no light at first, though as you blink you slowly register the fading yellow glow of Isa’s eyes, and your breath catches in your throat once more.

Isa had thrown himself at the person who had pinned you and sent all three of you through a wall and then an unsteady section of floor. 

He grunts as he pulls himself up, claymore still in hand. There’s blood on his hands and face. There’s a vague lump beyond him that might be a body but you can’t be sure in this light.

You stay still, watching.

He blinks once, twice, and then the glow is gone, plunging the room, or wherever you are into near darkness. 

“.... Comet?” There’s another flash as his claymore vanishes. 

“Here.” You croak, fighting the urge to cough on all the dust. Eventually you give in, throat and lungs aching from dirt and impact alike. You try to move and realise you’re under several slabs of rock. You could probably worm your way out with enough time and effort, but Isa somehow finds his way to you and removes the larger ones to help you up.

“Are you okay?” He asks, and you can see the worry in his face as your eyes adjust to the dark. “I saw them pin you, did they hurt you? What about the fall? Is anything broken?”

“I’m fine.” You think anyway. Shock could come out of nowhere sometimes, but nothing feels out of place, aside from what is to be expected from going through both a wall and a floor apparently. “What about you? What was the glow? Magic?”

He shrugs, and you can see the torn edges in his jacket, but he doesn’t appear to be bleeding heavily. You wonder if it was the arrow grazing him or if someone else had nearly managed a lucky hit.

"I was a berserker once, though it's not a power I've had to call on since my recompletion. I'm hesitant to do so fully, in honesty. The risk of hurting you or someone else I care about is too great, but when I saw them standing over you.."

“What happened?” You ask, brushing stray hair from your eyes. You think your braid is coming apart, the tie broken, but you don’t have a replacement so you don’t bother messing with it. 

“I almost lost control. The man on you with the sword looked like he was about to-" He cuts himself off. "I think we’re in the lower levels now. They were sealed off centuries ago. We’ll have to find another way out.” His answer skims only briefly over what you want to know, and then moves just as quickly into problem solving. You’re not entirely satisfied with that, but he’s not wrong. You need to find a way out. The hole you had apparently entered through shines a dim light far above, and most definitely unreachable. Your wall dash won’t make it that high and you’re pretty certain Isa doesn’t have a wall dash at all.

He moves down the tunnel, taking your hand in his. You both pass the body without comment. It looks like the leader. You hear shouts from above, but it sounds like they’re retreating. No chance of a rope from that quarter. 

It gets darker as you keep moving. You try to hold a ball of lightning as a light source, but it’s not something you’ve had much practice with so it flickers in and out in fits and starts. Your heart clenches fearfully every time it threatens to go out. You’ve spent too much time being afraid of the dark to be comfortable in a strange place in the dark. Something crunches fitfully under your feet.

“Why was this place sealed off?” You ask. Your voice echoes far more loudly in the darkness then you feel it should. Isa shrugs.

“Lack of people to populate it, I think. By the time I was inducted, there was perhaps only a dozen of us. Old historians say this place once had a very large seer population, even bringing in ones from other areas and worlds to share in ideas and knowledge in times past.”

The light flickers again, casting deep shadows against his face.

“Eventually there just weren’t enough people to take care of the place, so bit by bit parts were sealed away in order to preserve their integrity while they were not in use.”

“Didn’t seem to work..” You say quietly, observing the deep digging roots of plants worming their way through the stonework, and the evidence of animals that have passed through. Isa shrugs.

“Some parts were more expertly done than others, likely.”

You continue wandering for some time. The tunnel opens into a large cavern you can’t see the edges of with your tiny light. Elaborate steps wind downward. Going down doesn’t seem like the answer, but it’s the only option, so down you both go.

You reach the bottom to see a set of doors inset into a beautifully carved frame. You worry that the wood of the door might be rotting, but not only is it entirely solid, it barely squeaks as Isa tugs it open.

Inside is a veritable trove of books and scrolls. Only a thin layer of dust coats the room, and Isa hesitantly reaches out, stopping just before touching them.

You keep your lightning ball tight against your chest, hoping against hope it doesn’t lash out and accidentally catch anything on fire.

“We should keep moving.” He says, visibly drawing himself back and composing himself.

“We can always come back and take a look at these later.” You offer. He huffs a sigh.

“If it hasn’t been looted and destroyed.”

You have nothing to respond to that, and you both keep walking. For how long, you don’t know, time seems to utterly escape you in this dark. Long enough you feel the burn in your thighs and you both eventually settle down to rest. You don’t bother worrying about dust and dirt on the floor, and neither does Isa.

He sighs.

“I’m sorry.” He says. “This was supposed to be a nice night where I showed you a small piece of myself and instead…”

“It’s okay.” You let out a little laugh, trying to keep your moods up. “It’s an adventure! We’ll get out of here.”

“Your outfit is a complete loss though.” He picks at the ragged edge of one sleeve idly. You laugh again.

“Ah what’s life if you aren’t wrecking the occasional outfit doing something reckless?” You quip, and earn a small chuckle from him, which you count as a win.

You stay like that, leaning against each other in the near darkness, only your little ball of lightning keeping it at bay. You don’t know how much time passes, but the constant channeling starts to wear on you, and Isa notices.

“You should save your strength for when we're moving.” He says, not unkindly. You shake you head.

“It’s fine, I can handle it.”

“Comet, we don’t know how long we will be down here. Rest.”

You shake your head again, stubborn. He huffs in annoyance.

“You’re as bad as Lea. Put it out Comet.”

“No.” You answer petulantly. He reaches a hand out for the ball, and you jerk away in a panic.

“What the f- what are you doing, you’re gonna hurt yourself!” You shout. He doesn’t back down.

“So are you. Put out the light, Comet.”

“I can’t be in the dark!” The words leave your mouth before you can think better of it. And Isa leans back, something crossing his features like realisation.

“I can’t.” You continue. “I know it’s terrible- I’ve got a kid literally made of darkness at home but.. After Traverse Town.. I need to have a light, Isa.”

“.... I’m sorry.” He says, so quiet even the echoing walls don’t amplify it. “I didn’t realise. I should have.”

“S’ok.” You murmur back. “It’s not like I said anything.”

“You never seemed nervous in dark rooms before.” He settles back against the wall, and you return to leaning against him, all the fighting annoyance fleeing you both in a rush.

“That’s not truly dark. There’s always the street lights outside, or some electronic giving something off. The moon. Stars. It’s different.”

“I see. I will bear that in mind in the future.”

You rest a bit more, and then continue on. You walk until your eyes grow heavy and every limb burns. Isa drags his feet in front of you, clearly exhausted. Eventually you both realise you have to stop. You have to rest.

Your hand trembles around the little ball of light, flickering ever smaller and more fitfully as your strength wanes.

“I’m scared.” You whisper. Isa pulls you close.

“Trust me?” He asks. You nod. 

“Close your eyes.” He says, and you do. He pulls your head down to bury your face into his collar. There are no visions to distract you this time, but the darkness behind your eyes is not the same as the one waiting beyond your sight, and when you feel Isa take hold of your wrist you know the light must have gone out. As long as you don’t think about it, it doesn’t seize you in a panic, focusing on the dusty smell of his clothing and hair, the faint edges of herbal tea clinging to both. You focus on the hand on yours, and the other which runs across the back of your head.

He starts to hum. It sounds familiar, but you’re not sure from where. An old song from before the fall of the Garden?

You doze lightly like that, pressed tightly to Isa’s side. You don’t know for how long.

Eventually you trade off, Isa sleeping against you as you hold your little light tightly in one hand. You hum a little yourself, trying to remember how the next part of Isa’s song had gone, anything to fill the empty and desolate silence.

Something scatters pebbles and dirt, just outside your circle of light, and you hear someone retch.

“Stars that’s awful- Comet! Isa!” For a moment you believe neither your ears nor eyes as Lea’s face dances into your vision, sheer relief coating his features as he rushes forward.

“Lea?” Your voice trembles, half convinced you’re hallucinating, and Isa stirs awake as Lea puts a hand to both your cheeks, rubbing at dirt and checking you’re both okay. Tears spill down at the sheer weight of emotion that floods through you at the sight of him.

“What happened to you guys? You tell me you’re going out for a date night and then go missing for three days. You scared me!” He pulls you both in for a hug. Isa seems stunned still.

“I’m sorry. It was my fault.” He says, and you snort.

“There were some looters and things got out of hand. But we’re fine, can we please get out of here?” You say with feeling. Isa nods in complete agreement.

“How did you find us?” He asks, which makes Lea look up and behind him into the dark. Something moves, and it takes you a moment to realize who. 

“Oh you guys done? I’m ready to go whenever you are!” Myde chirps cheerily. You can barely see him, the Abyss merging near perfectly with the surrounding dark, but it’s most certainly Myde. You don’t know if you’ve ever been happier to see him.

“It’s gonna suck teleporting Abyss-style, but  _ someone _ didn’t tell me where they were going and I got a little desperate.” Lea says, and Isa ducks his head at the admonishment.

“Lesson learned.” He says. “It will not happen again.”

Lea sighs heavily and pulls you both in for another hug.

“Man, don’t worry about it. You’re okay, let’s go home.”

**Author's Note:**

> the original thought was actually 'comet and isa's date turns into a lara croft-esque action adventure' but it ended up being more 'trapped in the dark talks about feelings'
> 
> i'm not good at adventure, what can i say. i'm better at people talking at each other


End file.
